Please The Palate |

Talking About Terroir with Capçanes

This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.

Wine grapes are grown in a variety of soils. The influence of the soil is one of the many factors that contribute to a resulting wine. But can you taste this difference?

There are general descriptors that say that sandy soils produce highly aromatic wines with low tannins and clay soils produce muscular wines with high extract. And there are examples of wines from around the world that demonstrate the influence on wines from sandy, volcanic, clay, limestone, slate and other soils.

But to really understand the influence of soil on wine, what if you could narrow down all of the other elements -- same grape, same vintage, same region, same viticulture practices, same vinification but four different soils? You can with Capçanes’ La nit de les garnatxes series.

20 February, 2018

The expression of terroir in a grand vintage

This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.

Two years ago, I spent a weekend at Château l’Hospitalet, one of the nine estates owned by Gerard Bertrand, located in the Languedoc in the south of France. I recall Gerard’s passion as he shared his belief in l’art de vivre (the art of living). And recently, I was inspired again when he visited the U.S. to host a series of master classes to espouse how biodynamics magnify the expression of terroir in a grand vintage.

Gerard Bertrand started making wine with his father 43 years ago in the south of France. By 2002, Gerard began to change his view after reading Rudolf Steiner, the father of biodynamics. Having used homeopathy in his personal life, he connected with the principles of biodynamics and began converting his vineyards.

15 February, 2018

Reconsidering Zinfandel

This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register. Zinfandel is California’s grape, but it was a grape I disregarded for the last decade. Of course, with iconic producers such as...

06 February, 2018